mission trip

Tomorrow morning I'm heading off to Philadelphia with 5 kids from my church and a girl that I barely know. (She was gracious to step in at the last minute after a chaperone had to step down.)

We'll be working with YouthWorks! which I've heard from my friend, Rachel, is a great organization. I've been getting more and more excited as the day approaches. I can't wait to see the effect of teaming together with 60 other people for the cause of Christ will have on us.

I love mission work and haven't had the chance to go on any short-term trips since I spent the summer of 2005 in Yellowstone with Campus Crusade. I hope this proves to be a good experience and a Christ-exalting time.

Pray that we would be safe, united and good witnesses for Christ. But mostly pray that Jesus will be our focus and that His Gospel would go forward with power while we are there to save those who would believe. That's the whole purpose.

I've got several scheduled posts for next week, I hope you enjoy them. We'll be getting back late Friday night.

In Christ who sustains,

-joe

missionaries

In order to help out my missionary friends, I've decided to dedicate some space to them each week on my blog. These are men and women that I support either monetarily or through prayer as they seek to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I encourage you to take some time and pray for them and, if you have the means, support them in their work.

I'm also adding a column along the side of my blog with links to many of my missionary friends so that you, too, can join in the great joy of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people.

-joe

Missions: Go or Send

Missions was the topic during yesterday's sermon. There are two extremely influential sermons and one book that have shaped my view of missions over the last two years. I reference all three in the sermon. I encourage you to listen to them or read them:

Paris Reidhead's sermon "10 Shekels and a Shirt"
John Piper's book Let the Nations Be Glad
(I am working on finding out the name and hopefully audio link from the sermon on Revelation 5 that was preached at College Park Church in early 2006)

My sermon outlines two ideas: What is the point of missions and evangelism? and What should we do because of that?

The answers: God is the point of missions and evangelism. He is worthy of all praise and adoration and glory because He was slain for our sins. He deserves the reward of his suffering.

We should go and send missionaries because of this glorious truth. We all have the duty as Christians to be sending and going for the cause of Christ because He is worthy. Jesus said "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." We must go, because we are commanded.

Here is the audio from the sermon:

You may also download it here.

-joe

back to the grindstone

Well, after two barbecues, a pontoon ride (and near sink) and a last meal at Moe & Johnny's, my sister left for Honduras again. The capital city, Tegucigalpa (Tegus for short), is still shut down to airplanes so she had to fly into San Pedro Sula instead.

She landed a couple of hours ago and is heading back to Esuela El Sembrador (which is now 8 hours ago instead of 4.)

Pray for her as she travels and pray for the kids at the school and the missionaries there that God would be glorified in their midst through the spread of the Gospel in Honduras.

-joe

on to the mission trip

Tonight we had a business-like meeting at youth group to pick a place to go (I had narrowed it down to 7 choices). We are still on the fence, but tomorrow a decision will have to be made to make sure we have the space reserved. Pray that I make the right choice.

I must admit, I'm a bit worried about this trip. Not of the idea of taking 10 kids somewhere far away, not of sharing the Gospel, not of doing work, not of the dangers that may accompany such work. I'm scared that I'll miss the mark on organizing things. It is definitely one of the things that I am worst at doing. Pray that I would be confident, faithful and organized in planning this event. Also, pray for my spirit to be humbled because, in the end, it doesn't matter how good I am at planning the event...it is God who will be accomplishing His work of spreading the Gospel...with or without good organization. But still, I strive to be better at this.

Thankfully I have some great kids who help me out (one who now works for me an hour a week to organize my life at church). Pray for them...they have to work with a bumbling idiot on a fairly regular basis.

Mostly, pray that God would be magnified in the kids of my church and in the lives of those we serve and share the Gospel with. A heart for missions is an amazing thing and the earlier kids catch wind of the Spirit of power in evangelism, the more time God has to do great things through them.

-joe

a little late

I was busy yesterday evening so I didn't have a chance to check this over and post it. So, I'm doing it over my lunch hour (after holding my nephew for 10 minutes or so.)

Recently, there have been lots of things springing up in the church that I perceive as good things. There is a study going on discussing Mark Dever's The Gospel and Personal Evangelism that is sparking some great conversation and action.

There are several women who are now holding an outreach Bible study at a (for the most part) retired apartment complex here in Rochester. That makes my heart sing. (It would sing more if some dudes would step up to the plate, but...at least we are talking about Jesus.)

There is a swell of people wanting strong discipleship from the leaders of the church. There are youth getting excited about missions abroad. There are new folks coming to church every week. There are two baptisms in the next month.

These are great things. I'm excited for them.

And then, I hear that at the book study on Dever's book there was a lengthy discussion that went on concerning who is really saved. Now, the discussion came about because the book warns against emotional responses to the Gospel instead of heartfelt and true repentance and belief...it is good to know that there is a difference and to do our best to guard against it. But...it lead to some folks saying that you basically have to be perfect in order to be saved. You have to lead the "sermon on the mount" life or you don't have saving faith. Hold the phone...Put down the fish. Did you hear that? That is absurd. Ridiculous. And a great insult and de-glorification of the great salvation offered through Christ on the cross.

Thankfully a friend of mine (I am not in the study because I work with the youth) stopped things and said. "HOLD UP! Are you insinuating that unless you live a perfect life that you are not saved? Are you serious?! Let me lay it down John Piper style. We are saved because of Jesus substitutionary death on the cross and we are renewed to life by the same Spirit that resurrected Him from the grave. That is the "blazing center" of the Gospel. That is what we are talking about here. The center. The middle. The most important thing. We are talking about evangelizing and you are talking about the effects of sanctification and whether or not you can tell someone is saved. That is absurd. Jesus saves and then we live holy. Living holy means nothing without the cross and that is what we are to be doing...evangelizing the good news of the death of Jesus."

Whew. I am glad that he was there. I am also glad that through God's providence I am preaching on sanctification this Sunday. Oh Lord, let me speak openly and honestly and through the power of your Spirit so that these wretched thoughts will be cast out from among our midst.

-joe

missions

Last week after Senior High youth group I told the kids that starting this Sunday we would be spending time in prayer for a nation or people after the regular meeting.

Tonight, we spent some time hearing about Kosovo from one of the guys in the group and then I cast some vision to them about the unreached people of the world. My lesson for the night was the majority of Romans 9 and the lead-in to Romans 10 and that our duty is to faithfully and joyfully preach the Gospel so that God will redeem His people.

We are taking the vision of John Piper and calling everyone to be a "Goer or a Sender." Tonight we began the first step in sending: getting a heart for the unreached of the world.

So, perhaps you should spend some time in prayer for the Serbs and Bosnians and Albanians involved in the recent declaration that Kosovo is independent. Be in prayer for the political unrest, but most importantly be in prayer for people to faithfully declare the great goodness of the Gospel to the folks over there. Feel with Paul the anguish of knowing that there are countless perishing without a saving faith in Jesus and pray for the people that God would be gracious and move withing in them and provoke them to believe and call on His name.

Amen.

-joe

my sister...and some encouragement

For anyone who doesn't know, my older sister Amy, is a missionary in Honduras. She was down for 10 months last year and is returning after 7 months back in the states raising support. She goes down to Indy tomorrow (monday) and will fly out early (6am) on Tuesday. Thanks to Rachel and her roommates for housing her and getting her there early.

Please pray for my sister and the entire team down at Escuela El Sembrador. Pray that God would be magnified and the lives of the boys and the mission teams would be radically altered by the love of Christ and that He would redeem them for Himself.

And, on a completely unrelated note, I got some great encouragement tonight after youth group.

We just started a few week series on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and I asked for any questions after my intro to the topic. I got a couple of responses and one of them read like this:

Hey Joe...
I don't have a question, but I just wanted to say this is amazing...I feel so blessed to be a part of this youth group and I'm pretty sure this is changing my life so wonderfully!!.
Thanks...dude!

It was good to hear that the at least one of the kids in my group is knowing Christ more.

Hope the weekend went well,

-joe

missions

I have spent a good amount of time talking about preaching the Gospel in social justice and apart from social justice. That, in the end, the Gospel of Christ is of the utmost importance and the betterment of the world is a secondary. That does not mean that we should not strive to better the lives of those around us, to rescue the poor and downtrodden.

Now, I think, in order to preach the Gospel at all times by proclaiming the good news of Christ, we must be fully aware of the great grace we have received. If we are to ever be able to properly tell of the faith and hope we have, then we must be fully enthralled by the greatness and glory of our great Savior. We must become enraptured in his love.

We does this by proclaiming the Gospel to each other before we ever go proclaim it to others. We must, each day and each hour, tell each other and remind ourselves of the great Gospel which we have received so that we don't forget it. So that we continue to be in love with Him. So that we abide each day in His grace.

If we do this, I agree with John Piper in his book Desiring God then we will be like the Macedonians who, although they were poor, gave with great joy out of the love that was in their hearts that the Gospel of Christ be made known to all and that those in need within the bounds of the church would be provided for.

May we, as brothers and sisters, take time to remind each other of the greatness of our Gospel, lest we forget it and not fulfill our great commission. We cannot do it without first knowing it and being fully engulfed in it. We may try and at times God may grant us the ability to succeed but it will be weak compared to what can be accomplished by the overflow of our hearts to the hopeless world.

-joe

nicaragua

please be in prayer for the central american countries after hurricane felix. my sister (who is a missionary in honduras) just talked to a friend of hers in nicaragua. read about it here

may God redeem many

shame

i've posted a few things on social justice in the last couple of weeks and i've talked about it with a few people as well. today, through a wide circle of reading i came upon this verse in Ezekiel while doing a topical verse on something completely different.
Ezekiel 3:18-21
"If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But ifyou warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul."

there is so much in these verses that puts me to shame, makes me realize the weight i have on my shoulders of not telling people of their wickedness and God's righteousness. thanks be to God that I have forgiveness in Christ, otherwise surely the weight would pull me under.

the blood of them is on our hands if we do not warn them, and how can we warn them unless we speak the truth of the Gospel to them? let us continually put Christ on our lips so that they have the chance to repent and so that we glorify God by doing His work here on the earth.

-joe

in the famine

I read over Acts 11 today and the verses 27-30 hit me in the face
"Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul."

am i reading that right? did i miss something huge?
a famine over the "world"...probably meaning a very large portion of the middle east. and what did the disciples determine? to send help to the brothers in Judea. not to everyone. not to random people. to the brothers. other believers are who they came to aid. the famine was everywhere. why just the brothers?

here's my two cents. we often think that we are aiding people by helping them in the physical realm, what is commonly referred to as 'social justice.' often times (though not always) what happens is that we help people and they get back on their feet and they never turn to God in their time of need, but rather depend on man to supply for their needs.
Christians, however, are told to love one another. By our love for each other others will know we love Christ. Care for the brethren. We care for our own because we are the body of Christ, we act as his intercessor to provide all the needs of those who trust in Him.

do i think that every time a disaster happens we should only help those who are Christian? no. but only to a point. if we help those outside the faith, there must be a call to repent and believe. Luke 13 should be taught. the folks who died are no more sinful than we that are alive. therefore, repent.

thoughts back?

-joe